In what appears to be a full-court press designed to refurbish his image a year after his post-Thanksgiving car crash and spectacular fall from grace, Tiger Woods appeared on ESPN 1050 Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” Thursday and said he is “so much better now because of this past year.”

“It’s been the best thing for me,” Woods said of 2010, where he became an international punchline after his numerous extra-marital affairs were revealed, losing his No. 1 ranking in golf and failing to win a single tournament in the calendar year, dating back to his 2009 Australian Masters victory.

It was during that tournament Down Under when rumors began to swirl about the golfer’s secret romantic life outside of the marriage to then-wife Elin. The National Enquirer ran a story about Woods’ alleged relationship with party girl Rachel Uchitel. Days later, Woods crashed his Cadillac just steps from the front door of his Windermere,  Fla. mansion, hitting a fire hydrant and then crashing into a tree.

“Unfortunately I’ve talked about Thanksgiving for the past year. I think I’ve exhausted that subject,” Woods said when host Mike Golic asked him to revisit the incident that kick-started his spiral downward, although it was unclear who he actually talked to about the incident. “But if that didn’t happen, I don’t think I’d be as blessed and as balanced as I am now.”

Woods wrote a first-person essay for Newsweek and also recently reactivated his Twitter account  and he told Golic and co-host Mike Greenberg that his latest appearances and efforts are to re-connect with fans.

“I’ve gone through some pretty rough times, pretty low moments. I just want to say, ‘Thank you’ to them and basically reconnect with them,” said Woods.

Although Golic and Greenberg claimed before the show that no topic was off-limits once the Woods interview began, an ESPN spokesperson told SI.com that “Tiger’s people asked we not ask him specifically about the details of his car accident of last Thanksgiving night. Considering Tiger’s been asked about the details of the accident many times during the past year at various press conferences, golf tournaments and by ESPN and has declined to answer each time, we agreed to that request.” The spokesperson added that Woods’ ex-wife Elin – the couple divorced in August – was also off limits.

Before the interview began, Greenberg told his listeners that he’d “always rooted for Tiger Woods,” and Golic chimed in, “Me too.”

When Woods first spoke, he said in a nervous, but chipper voice to Greenberg, “Thanks Mike. It’s good to be here buddy.”

Woods did not mention his ex-wife by name during the interview, which lasted about 25 minutes. He instead chose to focus on his two children, daughter Sam and son Charlie, and how his past sins have set the stage for him to be a better person and father.

“Infinitely,” said Woods, when asked if he was happier now than a year ago. “It’s just amazing how much better I feel internally each and every day, how thankful I am to have the connection I have with my kids and the people who mean the most to me.”

Woods added that when the time comes to tell his two kids about his life of mistresses and affairs, he will tell them, “absolutely the truth, what I had done, what I did. I can’t change the past. Sit down there and talk to them face to face, eyeball to eyeball.”

“Priority No. 1 are my kids,” added Woods. “No doubt about that. They mean everything to me. Doing each and every thing I can to make their lives better, more prepared for the future is something that I take very seriously.”

At the end of the interview, Greenberg broached the topic of controversial Canadian physician Anthony Galea, who earlier this year was indicted on five felony charges, and is accused of giving professional athletes human growth hormone and Actovegin, a derivative of calves’ blood and which is not approved for use in the U.S.

Galea treated Woods in 2009 at the golfer’s Florida home despite not having a license to practice in the U.S. Woods told Golic and Greenberg that Galea used PRP therapy – where a patient’s blood is put in a centrifuge, the platelets are separated, and then the platelet-rich plasma is injected into the injured area – to help in his recovery from 2008 knee surgery. According to the indictment, Galea also injected mixtures of substances, including HGH, banned in sports as a performance-enhancer, into patients’ to repair cartilage.

“Dr. Galea performed PRP, which is platelet-rich plasma injections,” said Woods. “Something that I needed, because when I was coming back from knee surgery, I tore my Achilles. That was not a fun time. The PRP injections helped that. I actually kept re-tearing (Achilles) throughout the year. Most of last year, I wasn’t really doing too good physically.”

Woods said skeptics who think he used performance-enhancing drugs are “entitled.

By Christian Red